Effective Running Game, Balance Still Key To Winning Late-Season NFL Games

Balance in life is important, and it’s just as vital when it comes to having success in the NFL.

The passing game obviously is important for a lot of teams across the league, but are the NFL’s best teams also the ones who throw the ball the most?

Former NFL linebacker Matt Chatham dug deeper to answer that question Tuesday on FootballByFootball.com. The findings, Chatham reports, indicate the importance of having an effective running game.

“The best possible game plan distribution as evidenced on average in Week 14 was one in which you throw the ball somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35 times and commit to rushing the ball for significantly more than 100 yards,” he wrote. “Can you win without doing this? Sure. But you’re living on the edge. And the outliers usually eventually get clipped.”